ROME, N.Y. — Donald Trump mistakenly bragged about support from a top Ted Cruz backer and said the Republican National Committee should be "ashamed of themselves" during a rally here Tuesday.
"We’ve had so many great endorsements with Governor Christie, and with Sarah Palin, and with everybody -- Vander Plaats -- our friend Bob Vander Plaats from Liberty University," Trump said.
The problem is Vander Plaats is not with Liberty University and he certainly is not a Trump supporter -- he is Cruz's National Campaign Co-Chair. Afterwards, Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks told NBC News that he did, in fact, mean Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr., who has endorsed him.
After the comment Vander Plaats took to Twitter to correct the real estate mogul:
Trump’s Rome rally, which was announced less than 24 hours in advance and still brought in more than one thousand people, marked the third rally in a row that Trump continued his rampage against the GOP primary process.
“The party is playing dirty,” Trump said, telling the crowd they were being “disenfranchised” by the delegate process. Pressing them to go out and vote, Trump dared the crowd to “show the Republican Party they can’t get away with this stuff any longer.”
“The RNC should be ashamed of themselves for allowing this kind of crap to happen,” Trump said.
Trump’s outrage stems from the Cruz campaign’s success in placing supporters as delegates for the Republican presidential convention -- even in states that Trump won. It has the potential to shift the nomination to Cruz if Trump fails to secure enough delegates to secure the GOP nomination before the July convention.
He was careful to note that he’s “not complaining about the states that I won.” The ones he didn’t, however, like Colorado, Trump is looking to change the process. “They should have had an election,” Trump complained of The Centennial State.
Last weekend, Cruz swept up all of Colorado’s available 13 delegates.
Trump also called for back taxes with countries in NATO, citing the economic burden of the group as reason enough. Defending prior comments about NATO but clarifying that he didn’t say to get rid of it, Trump said he’s “prepared to walk because I’m not going to let you defend other countries and keep raising your taxes.”
"When somebody’s with me, they owe me rent, I say how many months: two months, three months. I say you better get it quick,” Trump said. "But they’re delinquent. You call them delinquent. These countries are delinquent. Now they’re delinquent. You know why? Because they think we’re stupid. That’s why.”